As both a global learning company and award-winning publishing house, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt sought to weave together its educational and literary expertise to inspire young writers across the United States and celebrate their work. HMH launched the first-ever Spark a Story writing competition for high school students, and received submissions from teens across the country.

In the spirit of HMH's Best American series, the Spark a Story collection includes twenty short stories from this competition, as selected by HMH editors. The anthology offers a diverse set of pieces from some of today's promising teen writers, many of whom aspire to continue exploring the role writing will play in their lives.